Columns

At their core, the major American holidays are bound by a common thread: They remind us of who we are and what we stand for, each and every year.

While the Fourth of July celebrates our founding and freedom, Memorial Day and Veterans Day call on us never to forget the high price paid for those enduring gifts. Thanksgiving gives us a moment among loved ones to appreciate the many good things in our lives, and on Labor Day, which arrives this weekend, we pay tribute to the hard work that made our nation what it is today.

I had the privilege of attending a Title I meeting for our schools on Monday night at Kathryn Winn Primary. I will refer to the experience in the loosest sense of the term as a “meeting” because the only people there was myself and Gerda Wise with the school district. Despite the low number of attendees I found it to be very informative and felt this month’s column would be an excellent vehicle for sharing the information with others.

When asked to critique people’s diets and come up with changes that they would make, sometimes some of the changes made are more significant than others. However, one thing often found is that there are similar mistakes being made, which ultimately means that they are seen and the same changes needing to be made are on a continual basis.

Highlighted below are the three most common changes that are needed within your diet, based on the diets seen on a day-to-day basis.

Before the mid-1970s, special education in our country’s public schools was all but non-existent. Many students were either outright denied the opportunity to attend because of their disability or they received inferior instruction if they were able to enroll.

That thankfully began to change in 1975, when Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and required each state to provide appropriate services in this critical area.

Buses are loaded up, lunchboxes are packed up and students have returned to school in Carroll County. At Champions for a Drug Free Carroll County, we are geared up and excited for a fun-filled year with education and prevention at our forefront as always.

About a decade ago, Kentucky started to see a welcome trend as the number of highway fatalities began a steady decline.

Totals that regularly exceeded 900 a year before 2007 dropped to 638 in 2013, a figure not seen in the commonwealth since the 1940s.

Unfortunately, that was as low as it would go. The number of fatalities on our roads last year was almost a fifth higher than the benchmark set just two years earlier, and through the first seven-plus months of this year, it’s eight percent ahead of where it was last August.

Kentucky received some welcome news last month when a national study found that no state had a smaller gap when comparing the high school graduation rates of students from low- and higher-income families.

The average gap across the country stands at 15 percent, but it’s just 1 percent here in the commonwealth. In fact, our low-income students graduate at a higher rate than the overall national average, something only five other states can say.

The Kentucky legislature was very busy this last session. Some of the greatest changes made dealt with Kentucky’s laws on Driving Under the Influence. Prior to this last legislative session, the law had not seen any changes since 2010.

It’s still a while down the road, but the year 2033 will be a pivotal one for our country, because that’s when U.S. Census Bureau projects there will be more citizens over the age of 65 than under the age of 18.

It’s not a surprising trend, of course, given the gains we have made in medicine, technology and a greater focus on eating right and exercising. From a historical perspective, however, it’s a relatively new phenomenon. A century ago, less than 5 percent of our citizens were older than 65; by 2040, they will comprise 20 percent.

Weight loss alone is not what you should be focusing on because ultimately that doesn’t take into account any positive changes in your lean muscle mass, changes in fluid levels or even inflammation within the gut which can and does effect your weight on the scales.